Ball Don't Lie

Gregg Popovich is aghast that he has to share ‘PRESEASON?!?’ thoughts with Craig Sager (Video)

Gregg Popovich, after being told he had to comment intelligently on an exhibition game (Getty Images)

Mercifully, after 20 days, the NBA’s exhibition season ends on Friday night. The league had some of its teams schlep around the world showing off their wares and sneakers and warmup jackets (along with some much needed philanthropy-based work), while also sending its players to smaller stateside markets to grow the game. Jason Kidd’s number was retired, Derrick Rose and Greg Oden made their technical returns to the court, but by and large the exhibition season is a bit bloated, and a bit silly.

And bereft of good analysis, as it should be, because very little of any lasting import happens in the preseason. Which is why San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich questioned the wisdom of Turner’s Craig Sager as he posed a between-quarter interview question in the midst of a Spurs/Houston Rockets game that absolutely nobody (pitched against the World Series and NFL football) watched on Thursday. Take a look:

To call Coach Pop in “midseason form” would be misleading, though, as Popovich is usually a bit crustier, or at the very least more taciturn with Sager during the cold of winter or pressures of the playoffs.